by Cem Sertoglu, Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital in Istanbul

October 01, 2013

Hiring at Startups

In my opinion, a startup founder has three primary jobs:

1. Develop and manage the company's vision2. Form the right team to make that vision a reality3. Make sure there's money in the bank

The most important of these three is #2. That makes hiring a critical task. I was reading a recent Mark Suster post, and found myself re-reading a section, that effectively summarizes how a founder should approach hiring:

“Join our company because we’re doing exciting things.

Join because you’re going to get more responsibility at a young age than you would a bigger company. Join because we’re a meritocracy and promote success not tenure.

Join because every year at the end of the year you can say that your resume is significantly better than it was the year before. Join because as we continue our successes we will have more resources to reward you with and reward we will.

But don’t join if you’re looking for a get-rick-quick scheme. We’re not that company. We pay less than you could earn at other companies. We have to.

All I ask is to earn your employment every year. If at the end of each year you haven’t grown in skills and stature, if at the end of the year you don’t feel like you’re still enjoying the journey, if at the end of the year you don’t think your resume is going to look better at the end of next year

… then it is time to leave. I’m going to work hard to make sure you never have to.

and if money comes through options at the end of our journey that’s icing on the cake.”

The post is actually on another interesting topic, but I wanted to pick this section out.